THE WAR ROOM: President Trump announced on social media this morning that the US and Iran have had “OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS, VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES.” He said he postponed threatened attacks on Iranian power plants.

  In the war of words, had previously threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants within 48 hours if they do not back off and allow the Strait of Hormuz to re-open for oil shipping. Iran responded with missiles that hit Israel.

  An Iranian military spokesman vowed that if his country’s energy sites are attacked, they would hit back more infrastructure such as regional fuel depots and vital desalination plants. Trump has repeatedly declared that the Iranian military is demolished, yet they keep striking back and maintain the power to shut the spigot on 20 percent of the world’s oil supply.

  Trump postured over the weekend that; “I don’t want to do a cease-fire. You know, you don’t do a cease-fire when you’re literally obliterating the other side.” Then this morning he said he was talking with Iran about what amounts to a ceasefire.

  The price of oil is up 50 percent as a consequence of the war. Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that “50 days of temporary, elevated prices” was a worthwhile tradeoff for “50 years of peace in the Middle East.” Pressed on whether gas prices would actually fall within 50 days, he answered: “I don’t know whether it’s going to be 30 days, I don’t know whether it’s going to be 50 days, I don’t know whether it’s going to be 100 days.”

THE QUIET WAR: The sideshow to the Iran war is Israel’s stepped up incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah militants. Unable to wipe out such groups as Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza, Israel engages in what it calls “mowing the grass,” repeated operations to kill and degrade the militants reducing their threat.

  The Israeli defense minister said yesterday that he had ordered the military to step up its destruction of bridges and houses in southern Lebanon. They have already killed a thousand people and displaced over a million.  Israel Katz, the defense minister, said in a statement on Sunday that he had instructed Israeli forces to destroy more bridges that cross the Litani River in southern Lebanon used by Hezbollah, as well as civilians.

  The military announced it is preparing to bomb the Qassmiye bridge, a major bridge in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah uses that and other bridges to send fighters and weapons to the south against Israel.

ICE JAM: President Trump declared over the because the Democrats won’t agree to re-fund the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, he’s sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to airports to bolster unpaid TSA employees. ICE agents are not trained for airport security and many are not trained for the job they already hold.

  Passengers have been waiting on security lines for two or three hours at major airports. “If the Democrats do not allow for Just and Proper Security at our Airports, and elsewhere throughout our Country, ICE will do the job far better than ever done before!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. “The Fascist Democrats will never protect America, but the Republicans will.”

   In a later post Trump said, “Now with the death of Iran, the greatest enemy America has is the Radical Left, Highly Incompetent, Democrat Party!”

ON THE RUNWAY: New York’s Laguardia Airport is closed this morning following a collision on the runway last night between an Air Canada jet and a fire truck. The pilot and co-pilot were killed in the crash that destroyed the nose of the airplane.

  The fire truck was crossing the runway responding to a separate emergency and a recording reveals the air controller calling for it to stop.

  The jet had come from Montreal and was landing. About 40 passengers and crew were taken to hospitals, most with non-serious injuries. Two officers in the fire truck were listed in stable condition.

THE OBIT PAGE: Former FBI director and special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated connections between Russia and the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, died over the weekend and the President publicly celebrated with a social media post declaring; “Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!” Mueller was 81 and had Parkinson’s disease.

  Mueller won Trump’s lifelong enmity as special counsel with the conclusion that Trump’s 2016 campaign had interactions with Russian operatives and concluded that he could neither indict nor absolve the president. He indicted the Trump allies Paul Manafort, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, and Roger Stone, a longtime political adviser.

  Taking office at the FBI just a week before the 911 attacks, Mueller re-built the bureau into a modern counter-intelligence agency, serving for 12 years, the second longest tenure as director.

  Muller was a rock-ribbed straight-arrow Republican. He joined the Marine Corps and was wounded in Vietnam where he was awarded the Bronze Star for leading a rifle team against an ambush in which they were outgunned.

  Muller was everything that Trump is not. He was a dedicated public servant seeking no personal profit or reward.

THE SPIN RACK: United Airlines announced in its fight against disruptive passengers that“passengers who fail to use headphones while listening to audio or video content” can be refused travel or removed from the aircraft.

BELOW THE FOLD: The White House ordered the installation of a statue of Christopher Columbus in front of the Executive Office Building in defiance of objectors who see Columbus as a symbol of European colonialism in America. The statue is a replica of one destroyed by protesters in Baltimore.

  A White House spokesman said in a statement, “In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero, and President Trump will ensure he’s honored as such for generations to come.”

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